Vanessa's Journal

Feb. 7

Chinese New Year Day! I woke up early in the morning and couldn’t sleep.  Something unfortunate had happened the night before. Let’s just say there is a reason that I don’t own expensive camera equipment and why I should never be trusted with such things. I broke the outer UV protector for the lens of the camera on loan from University Relations (sorry guys! I will pay for it I promise). Thankfully, the inside of the camera was fine and all of the family pictures I had taken of Lao Wang’s family were all there. You can actually still take pictures but you get giant cracks through the middle of them unless you zoom in really far to bypass the cracks. I was mortified at the thought of not being able to take pictures of Lao Yang and Lao Fan’s families (who I was to visit in the next few days). So the only option was to hike up to Wuyipeng and get the camera that my colleague Wei loaned to me (who is probably reading this and feeling nervous all of a sudden). Anyway, I left Lao Wang’s house at 7:30 am to hike up in the snow in my running shoes to get the camera. As I left his house, I accidentally stepped on a small un-detonated firecracker from the night before and it startled me in the silence of the morning. I think I woke up the cow. 

When I got up to Wuyipeng, I thought I might as well change into my hiking boots to allow for faster sliding down the mountain. I was back at Lao Wang’s house before some people even woke up. That morning I took off for Lao Yang’s house.  It was sad to leave my friends at Lao Wang’s house. Lao Wang’s daughter in particular wanted me to stay, as did her cat. But Lao Yang was waiting, so off I went. It was good to see Lao Yang’s wife again.  he seemed to have recovered well from her surgery. I also got to spend time with Lao Yang’s two kids, his son who is 15 and his daughter who is 13. We had a huge lunch. Unlike the huge crowd at Lao Wang’s house, this time it was just the four of them and me. I enjoyed the experience in a different way, as it felt more intimate. I had some great talks with the four of them. They are a very tight knit family. His two kids get along remarkably well for being teenagers. They love to play cards together. His daughter in particular took a liking to me and announced that she wanted me to be her godmother. It was very sweet and touching. She seemed to love the role of being my host and kept refilling my cup of tea. Lao Yang’s son is an absolute spitting image of his dad, to the extent that it is fun watching the two of them sitting next to each other as they unknowingly display the same mannerisms.  

Lao Yang’s family is a hard core farming family. They had rabbits and chickens and a large farm plot. They make a lot of their own food. For instance, the tofu that I had at their home was homemade. I don’t even know how one makes tofu, but apparently it involves a lot of hand-grinding. It was the best tofu I ever had. 

After lunch, the family got all excited about the family photo shoot. They decided to dress me up in their traditional Tibetan clothing. It was so much fun. I felt like I was five years old playing dress up. They all got dressed up too and we had fun taking pictures. At night, I watched Lao Yang’s front entrance become a revolving door. All kinds of people kept coming and going, mostly they were the neighborhood teenagers. Lao Yang’s house seemed to be the “cool house” for teenagers to hang out and play cards. In fact, Lao Yang’s wife played along with them. Lao Yang said that happens almost every night when the kids are on break.